At last Friday’s 26th Annual New Mexico Appellate Practice Institute, Justice Richard Bosson and Joey Moya, Clerk of the Court, gave an informative presentation on practice before the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Here are some of the useful bits of information that they shared:

–Over the past 13 years, the Court has granted about 20% of petitions for writ of certiorari, but over the past 5 years, that rate has gone down to 10-15%.

–When a new justice arrives at the Court, there is usually a spike in the number of petitions that are granted.

–For a writ of certiorari to be granted, two votes are required. When one justice is interested in taking a case, he or she usually must work hard to persuade a colleague to provide a second vote.

–Justices may only spend ten minutes or so reviewing your petition for certiorari. Make the first 2-3 pages of your petition count!

–Don’t write a petition for certiorari while angry.

–Justice Bosson: “There is no law that says you have to be dull.”

–In the petition, point out how your case involves issues that have broad implications beyond your case.

–New Mexico has underdeveloped case law in a lot of areas, and the justices would like to develop it further. The Court is therefore especially interested in taking cases that involve: state constitutional issues, water law, oil and gas law, mining law, contracts, or the Uniform Commercial Code. Continue reading →